Google AI Overviews

AI-generated response from Google (Gemini) displayed at the top of search results, citing multiple web sources. Launching in France in March 2025.

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What are Google AI Overviews?

Google AI Overviews is an AI-generated summary box from Google that appears above the classic search results. Powered by the Gemini, it directly answers the user's query by drawing on multiple web sources that it explicitly cites. Launched in the United States in May 2024 during Google I/O, it was deployed in France in March 2025 and now covers over 100 countries. For SEO, it's the most significant evolution since the arrival of Featured Snippets.

What's the difference between AI Overviews and classic search results?

Classic results display a list of ten blue links that the user must open to find their answer. AI Overviews, however, directly summarize the answer in natural language from multiple sources, with visible links to the right or bottom of the block. Unlike Featured Snippets, which extract a passage from a single page, AI Overviews merge information from 4 to 8 sources different. This is why AI Overviews are at the heart ofAEO and GEO : it's no longer just about ranking well, you also need to be cited as source.

How to appear in a Google AI Overview?

Several technical and editorial criteria maximize your chances of being cited in an AI Overview. Presence in the organic top 10 for the targeted query remains the basic condition: Google selects its sources from pages that are already well-ranked. Beyond that, the most effective levers are a strong E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, trustworthiness), clean Schema.org markup (FAQPage, Article, HowTo), "answer-first" content that clearly answers user questions, and a llms.txt at the root of the site. This is precisely the scope of the AI & AEO Optimizations.

What is the impact on a website's SEO traffic?

The arrival of AI Overviews profoundly changes the organic traffic structure. According to a Bain & Company study published in 2024, sites positioned for informational queries covered by an AI Overview have seen their organic traffic drop by 20 to 40%, with users finding their answer directly in the snippet without clicking. Conversely, sites cited as a source in the AI Overview maintain or increase their traffic, often with more qualified traffic. The winning strategy in 2026 therefore combines Classic SEO for ranking and AEO for citation, as two complementary rather than competing disciplines.

Glossary

Discover more glossary terms

These definitions will allow you to deepen your knowledge of important concepts and words that are often used in our field.

No-Code

No-code is a development approach that allows you to create without writing code, using visual interfaces and simple configurations.

MVP

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the simplest version of a product, launched to test its functionalities and get quick user feedback.

CSS

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a style language used to describe the presentation of HTML documents, including colors, fonts, and layouts.

Low-Code

Low-code is a development approach that uses visual interfaces and simple configurations to create applications with little or no code.

CMS

A CMS is a software that allows you to create, manage and modify the content of a website without requiring programming skills.

B2B

B2B (Business to Business) refers to commercial transactions between businesses, in contrast to business and consumer transactions (B2C).